Forza Horizon 6 The Trial: Eligibility, Scoring, and How It Works

The Trial is back in Forza Horizon 6 with Series 2: Horizon Decades, and it is the toughest event in the Festival Playlist. It puts a team of six real players against six Drivatars set to Unbeatable difficulty across a three-race championship. Playground Games held it out of Series 1 on purpose, giving new players time to finish the campaign before throwing them at the hardest AI the game offers.

Quick answer: Reach Horizon Legend by earning the Gold Wristband (32,500 Horizon Festival Points), then enter The Trial through matchmaking or a Convoy and win two of the three races against the Unbeatable Drivatar team to claim the reward.

What The Trial is in Forza Horizon 6

The Trial is a 6v6 co-operative championship. Your side, the Blue team, is made up of up to six human players. The Red team is six AI Drivatars locked to Unbeatable, the fastest opponents in the game. Unlike standard Seasonal Championships, where you race solo against Average AI and can adjust difficulty, The Trial fixes the AI at maximum and cannot be lowered.

The event runs as a best-of-three. Your finishing positions are combined with your teammates’ positions into a single team score, and the AI does the same. The team with the lower combined score wins the race. Win two of the three races and the whole human team takes The Trial.

Eligibility: How to unlock The Trial

There is one hard requirement. You must be a Horizon Legend, which means holding the Gold Wristband. This is the highest of the seven Wristband tiers and is awarded once you complete the full campaign and reach 32,500 Horizon Festival Points. If you already have access to Legend Island and the Colossus, you have met the requirement.

If you are still short of the Gold Wristband, the quickest ways to bank Horizon Festival Points are Road Racing, Dirt Racing, Cross Country events, PR Stunts, and Showcase Events. Horizon Play multiplayer levels also feed into your campaign points up to Level 25, so time spent online doubles as campaign progress. The Trial cannot be entered until that Wristband is earned. You can confirm your status on the official Forza Horizon 6 game.

Rules, format, and scoring

Scoring is based on finishing position across every driver in the session. Lower positions are better. After each race, your team’s position numbers are added together and compared against the AI team’s total. The lower total wins that race. Drivers also earn points for overtaking a rival, with an extra point for holding first place.

This is the heart of Trial strategy. You do not need every player to beat every AI car. You need your team total to come in under the AI total. One teammate finishing last can be offset by another finishing first, so consistency and teamwork matter more than individual heroics.

Element	Detail
Team size	Up to six human players vs six Drivatars
AI difficulty	Unbeatable (fixed, cannot be lowered)
Format	Best-of-three championship
Scoring	Combined finish positions; lower team total wins each race
Win condition	Win two of three races
Car restriction	Set each week; changes at the Thursday reset

Every week’s Trial sets a car class or car type restriction, and you cannot enter without a car that meets it. The requirement rotates with the Festival Playlist reset, which lands every Thursday at 14:30 UTC. Always read the restriction before building a car, because showing up with the wrong class wastes the session.

How to play The Trial

Open the Festival Playlist from the Campaign section of the pause menu or inside a Player House, then read the current Trial’s full restriction. Note the class, country, or car type so you bring an eligible car.

Prepare a car tuned to the very top of the allowed Performance Index. The Unbeatable AI runs cars built to the PI ceiling, so an undertuned build hands them an advantage before the lights go out.

Launch The Trial. You can let automatic matchmaking fill your team, or group with friends first by creating a Convoy and entering together. If your Convoy has empty seats, matchmaking fills them from the player pool.

Race all three legs and watch the position tracker for both your teammates and the AI. Push for clean finishes and help teammates clear their path where you can, since every player ahead of the AI lowers your team total.

Tip: Entering with a Convoy of even two or three capable drivers is the single biggest boost to your win rate. Random lobbies are unpredictable, and one player taking wrong turns can sink the team score.

Rewards and how to confirm a win

Winning The Trial is one of the largest single payouts in the weekly playlist, worth roughly 10 Festival Playlist points. Winners also receive a bonus reward car. For comparison, a single Seasonal Championship pays 5 points and the Treasure Hunt pays 3, so a Trial win is worth about two full championships compressed into one 15 to 25 minute event.

You know it worked when your team has won two of the three races and the championship resolves in your favor. The points are credited to both the active season and the cumulative Series total, and the reward car is added to your garage. If you lose the majority of races, you receive a smaller participation payout and no car.

Availability in Series 2

The Trial is live as part of Series 2: Horizon Decades, which runs June 18 through July 16, 2026. Each of the four one-week seasons inside the Series carries its own Trial with a fresh car restriction and reward car, so check the playlist again after every Thursday reset. As long as you hold the Gold Wristband, you can jump in for the full run of the Series.